Richard Bandler

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Richard Bandler
Born
Richard Wayne Bandler

1950 (age 74–75)
Teaneck, New Jersey, United States
Occupation(s)Writer, consultant, public speaker
Known forco-creator of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP)
Website richardbandler.com

Richard Wayne Bandler (born 1950) is an American writer, consultant, and public speaker in the field of self-help. [1] With John Grinder, he founded the neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) approach to psychotherapy in the 1970s, which is considered pseudoscience. [2] [3] [4]

Contents

Early life and education

Richard Wayne Bandler was born in Teaneck, New Jersey and attended high school in Sunnyvale, California. [5] : 24  He has stated that he was beaten as a child so badly that every bone in his body was broken. After his parents separated, he moved with his mother and stayed mostly in and around San Francisco. [6] [7] Bandler obtained a BA degree in philosophy and psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) in 1973, and an MA degree in psychology from Lone Mountain College in San Francisco in 1975. [5] : 24–25 

Neuro-linguistic programming

Bandler helped publisher Robert S. Spitzer (of Science and Behavior Books, Inc.) edit The Gestalt Approach (1973) based on a manuscript by gestalt therapist Fritz Perls (who had died in 1970). He also assisted with checking transcripts for Eye Witness to Therapy (1973). [8] According to Spitzer, "[Bandler] came out of it talking and acting like Fritz Perls." [9]

While a student at UCSC, Bandler also led a Gestalt therapy group. John Grinder, a professor at the University, said to Bandler that he could explain almost all the questions and comments Bandler made using transformational grammar. Grinder's specialty was in linguistics. Together, they created what they called a therapist training group. This was the basis for their first book, The Structure of Magic (1975). [10] Bandler and Grinder claim to have later codified some of the foundational models for neuro-linguistic programming in part by studying the methods of Milton Erickson and Virginia Satir. [11] [12]

Murder trial and acquittal

In 1986, Corine Ann Christensen (December 8, 1954 – November 3, 1986), a former girlfriend of Bandler's friend and cocaine dealer, James Marino, was shot dead in her Santa Cruz townhouse with a .357 magnum owned by Bandler. Authorities charged Bandler with her murder. Bandler testified that he had been at Christensen's house, but that Marino had shot Christensen. After a short deliberation, a jury found Bandler not guilty. [5] : 24, 64  [13]

Publications

References

  1. ↑ Colman, Andrew M. (2015). A Dictionary of Psychology. Oxford University Press. p. 503. ISBN   978-0-19-105784-7.
  2. ↑ Thyer, Bruce A.; Pignotti, Monica G. (2015). Science and Pseudoscience in Social Work Practice. Springer Publishing Company. pp. 56–57, 165–167. ISBN   978-0-8261-7769-8. As NLP became more popular, some research was conducted and reviews of such research have concluded that there is no scientific basis for its theories about representational systems and eye movements.
  3. ↑ Sharpley, Christopher F. (January 1, 1987). "Research findings on neurolinguistic programming: Nonsupportive data or an untestable theory?". Journal of Counseling Psychology. 34 (1): 103–107. doi:10.1037/0022-0167.34.1.103.
  4. ↑ Witkowski, Tomasz (January 1, 2010). "Thirty-Five Years of Research on Neuro-Linguistic Programming. NLP Research Data Base. State of the Art or Pseudoscientific Decoration?". Polish Psychological Bulletin. 41 (2). doi: 10.2478/v10059-010-0008-0 . All of this leaves me with an overwhelming impression that the analyzed base of scientific articles is treated just as theater decoration, being the background for the pseudoscientific farce which NLP appears to be. Using "scientific" attributes, which is so characteristic of pseudoscience, is manifested also in other aspects of NLP activities... My analysis leads undeniably to the statement that NLP represents pseudoscientific rubbish
  5. 1 2 3 Clancy, Frank; Yorkshire, Heidi (February–March 1989). "The Bandler Method". Mother Jones. ISSN   0362-8841.
  6. ↑ "Richard Bandler. Where were you born?" on YouTube
  7. ↑ "Richard bandler self hypnosis" (PDF).
  8. ↑ Perls, Frederick S. (1973). The Gestalt Approach & Eye Witness to Therapy. Science & Behavior Books. ISBN   0-8314-0034-X.
  9. ↑ Spitzer, Robert (July 1992). "Virginia Satir and the Origins of NLP" (PDF). Anchor Point. Vol. 6, no. 7. ISSN   0895-366X. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 20, 2009.
  10. ↑ Niepelt, Dirk (October 31, 2021). "Richard Bandler and John Grinder's "The Structure of Magic" | Dirk Niepelt" . Retrieved July 3, 2025.
  11. ↑ Grinder, John; Bostic St. Clair, Carmen (2001). Whispering in the Wind. C&J Enterprises.
  12. ↑ Schiff, Jacqui Lee (January 1, 1978). "Book Review: The Structure of Magic". Transactional Analysis Journal. doi:10.1177/036215377800800113.
  13. ↑ "Psychotherapist Not Guilty in Prostitute's Murder, Jury Finds" . Los Angeles Times. Times Wire Services. January 29, 1988. p. 3. ISSN   0458-3035.

Further reading

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